King Kong (character)
King Kong is a giant ape monster who first appeared in the 1933 RKO Radio Pictures film King Kong. His first appearance in a Toho film was the 1962 Godzilla film, King Kong vs. Godzilla. Background In the original 1933 film, the 1976 remake, King Kong Lives, and the 2005 remake, Kong is among the last living members of a giant species of ape that lives on the mysterious Skull Island, which is inhabited by other giant creatures as well as a tribe of natives that worship him as a god. Supplementary materials for the 2005 film reveal that incarnation of Kong to be the last surviving member of a species called Megaprimatus kong, and that his kind are likely descended from Gigantopithecus, the largest known primate to have ever lived and a close relative of modern orangutans, rather than gorillas. The 1933 Kong's backstory is elaborated upon in the 2005 prequel novel Kong: King of Skull Island. According to this novel, Kong is the last surviving member of a species of huge apes known as kongs that once were numerous on Skull Island. While he was still an adolescent, Kong and his parents were attacked by a pack of dinosaurs called Deathrunners and their huge matriarch Gaw. Kong's mother and father were both brutally killed in the attack, but Kong survived and grew up with an intense hatred for Gaw and all the meat-eating dinosaurs on the island. Eventually, Kong took his revenge by killing Gaw, establishing himself as the undisputed king of Skull Island and the god worshiped by the natives. The backstory for the 2005 Kong has been given off-screen by people involved in the making of the film. In an interview with the BBC, director Peter Jackson states that Kong never knew his parents because they were "probably killed by dinosaurs" when he was still young and that he had siblings which were also deceased.10 In Cinefex #104, Richard Taylor of Weta Workshop explained of the giant gorilla bones in Kong's lair by stating "We decided to give Kong a graveyard of his ancestors. ... Gorillas do mourn their dead, and this was where Kong mourned the loss of the only thing that he had social interaction with — it could be his father or mother." The Making of King Kong: The Official Guide to the Motion Picture states that the skull seen among the gorilla remains was Kong's father. In King Kong vs. Godzilla, Kong instead comes from an island called Faro Island, where he is worshiped by the local natives as their mighty god. In King Kong Escapes, Kong is a legendary giant ape that resides on Mondo Island. In Kong: Skull Island, Kong is established as the last living member of his species, and still a growing adolescent. Kong's family was wiped out fending off malevolent creatures called Skullcrawlers that threatened all other life on the island. A painting inside the Iwis' temple to Kong depicts what appears to be Kong kneeling in front of the carcasses of his parents, suggesting that he witnessed their deaths. Kong's birth is shown in detail in the official tie-in comic Skull Island: The Birth of Kong. Kong's parents were the last two members of their kind on Skull Island, and when his mother went into labor with him, they were attacked by a pack of giant Skullcrawlers. Kong's father fought the beasts off while his mate delivered their son, and hid the infant away inside a nearby cave. Kong's parents were both subsequently slaughtered by the Skullcrawlers in front of him, and died lying next to each other. The infant Kong knelt in front of their corpses and wept for the parents he never knew, and from that day on used his rage to protect the other creatures of the island from malevolent monsters like the Skullcrawlers. Powers and Abilities * 'Physical Strength: '''In all of his film appearances, King Kong displays immense physical strength. Kong is able to fight toe-to-toe with various giant creatures, such as dinosaurs and giant snakes, and come out on top. In both of his Toho incarnations, King Kong is an extremely capable melee combatant, using his large arms, powerful muscles, and mighty fists to strike fear in foes such as Gorosaurus, the Giant Octopus, and even Godzilla himself. * '''Agility: '''Kong exhibits impressive agility, as he can jump over great distances (such as the 250 meters between the World Trade Center's Twin Towers) and land on his feet. * '''Durability: '''Kong also demonstrates durability when he is able to continue fighting against airplanes (helicopters in the 1976 version) and even destroy some of them after being riddled with bullets. In the 1976 film, Kong survives getting shredded by machine gun fire and falling from the top of the South Tower of the World Trade Center before falling into a coma. In ''Kong: Skull Island, Kong is even more resilient, and shows complete resistance to any and all gunfire. Kong even withstands being lit on fire after swimming through a lake filled with napalm, although it weakens him and causes him to pass out. * 'Intelligence: '''Kong is also remarkably intelligent. He makes use of environmental objects like trees or rocks when fighting, and even when overwhelmed by more powerful or more numerous opponents he can think on his feet and find a way to win. In the 2005 film, Kong demonstrated the ability to understand and use sign language to Ann. * '''Electrokinesis: '''In his first incarnation in ''King Kong vs. Godzilla, the mighty primate cannot be harmed by electrical currents, and instead, feeds on their power in order to revitalize or awaken him from a state of unconsciousness. He can also use those same electrical currents, whether they are man-made or natural, to allow him to release surges of electricity from his hands, a powerful tool against Godzilla. The second incarnation of the Toho Kong who appeared in King Kong Escapes lacked these abilities but instead was immune to the radioactive Element X. * 'Heat Resistance: '''King Kong appears to be particularly resistant to Godzilla's atomic breath. He is hit by it multiple times throughout ''King Kong vs. Godzilla, and usually suffers little more than having some of his fur singed. He also survives being touched by lava monsters in Kong: The Animated Series ''and tanked the heat and flames from an entire lake on fire. Alternate Forms Mega Kong When Kong gets angry while merged with Jason Jenkins, Kong can access this form which gives him more strength and size the angrier he gets. This form allows Kong to breathe longer underwater and makes him strong enough to throw a truck so hard it burst into huge flames. A drawback is that Kong goes berserk on pretty much everything he sees when in this form. Feats Strength * Can physically match Showa Godzilla, who fought against the lifewiping King Ghidorah. * Can even toss Showa Godzilla, who weighs at least 20,000 tons * Can out-muscle a T-Rex, a Spinosaurus, and even a giant snake. * Capable of breaking solid stone walls and large rock structures. * In the animated series, can toss two monsters through several trees and punch armored trucks with ease. * In ''Kong: Skull Island, is strong enough to destroy parts of a cliff and tear apart a Mire Squid. Speed * Should scale to Showa Godzilla who can keep up with Showa King Ghidorah. ** Showa King Ghidorah has feats that makes him around 245 times the speed of light. * Easily outmaneuvers V-Rexes and other creatures his size. * Can dodge a bazooka * Can keep up with Showa Godzilla and Gorosaurus, who jumped from the ground to the exosphere in two seconds. * As a gorilla, is pretty agile and flexible. * Can react to planes and helicopters. * Easily dodges attacks from the Skullcrawlers. Durability * Tanks many of Showa Godzilla's hits, including his infamous Atomic Breath * Can tank bites from T-Rexes and V-Rexes. * Should be, at the very least, comparable to the durability of Showa Manda, who survived the Mantle Reactor's explosion. * Fought Skull Devil, the leader of the Skullcrawlers, from night till dawn without too much damage. Skill * Fought Showa Godzilla and won. * Fights large predators like V-Rexes and Skullcrawlers on a daily basis. * Once fused with a human being (Don't ask). * Is one of the oldest living movie characters to date. * Can cause earthquakes. * Fought three full-grown V-Rexes on his own at once while protecting Ann Darrow. * Defeated Gorosaurus. * Is capable of battling serpentine opponents like a giant boa constrictor or an Elasmosaurus and coming out on top. * Destroyed his robotic double Mechani-Kong. * Defeated a Giant Octopus. * Fended off a Pteranodon. * The only Titan aside from Godzilla and Mothra that didn't respond to King Ghidorah's Alpha Call which was able to command every other Titan, including Rodan. * Capable of battling Bionobots, mechanical dinosaurs. * Killed a Mire Squid, a giant fresh-water cephalopod. * Capable of overpowering two Skullsrawlers. * Killed a Skullcrawler, stomping its head in. * Killed Skull Devil by yanking his tongue, ripping out his internal organs. * An ancestral Kong was able to defeat a Gaw, a giant two headed-theropod dinosaur who was the previous ruler of Skull Island and the Deathrunners. Weaknesses * Doesn't have much armor. ** Insane durability makes up for this. * Still not as smart as regular human beings. * Has a short temper. * Despite his high tolerance for heat, Godzilla's Atomic Breath was still hot enough to singe his fur. Fun Facts * King Kong was the first American-made monster to fight Godzilla in a movie, the second being Zilla, and the third being M.U.T.O.. * King Kong's relatively small size outside of the Toho and MonsterVerse films fits with scientific understanding of the Square Cube Law, in which large animals have a low surface area, and therefore are less efficient at processes such as gas exchange, placing an upper limit on their size. King Kong's size in the 1933 film is close to the largest size a terrestrial animal can be under the current understood constraints. * According to an interview with Ishiro Honda, an early draft for the 1968 film Destroy All Monsters ''called for "all monsters" to appear. It's possible that Kong was to be among them, but it is unconfirmed. * Toho had planned to feature Kong in the Heisei series of Godzilla films in a remake of ''King Kong vs. Godzilla titled Godzilla vs. King Kong. According to special effects director Koichi Kawakita, the film would have Kong fall in love with a scientist who eventually coverts him into a cyborg. Turner Entertainment, by then the copyright owners of the original 1933 film, requested payment from Toho for the rights to use the character, and the film was ultimately scrapped. Toho later considered several projects pitting Godzilla against Kong's mechanical doppelganger, Mechani-Kong, but these films never came to pass either. * Kong is one of the many kaiju who share "King" in their names. Some examples are King Ghidorah, King Caesar, Red King, Kingsaurus III, Jumbo King, Live King, Grand King, King of Mons and Five King, as well as Godzilla, who is given the title "King of the Monsters." * In the Toho films, Kong is much taller than the original King Kong, who was said to stand at 50 feet tall in the original 1933 film. Kong is approximately 145 feet tall in King Kong vs. Godzilla, and 60 feet tall in King Kong Escapes. * Toho's King Kong was the basis for the American/Japanese anime TV Show, The King Kong Show. Toho was not involved in its development, though they later collaborated with the show's makers, Rankin/Bass Productions, to produce the film King Kong Escapes, which adapted several elements from the show. * The 1962 King Kong suit would later be loaned to Tsuburaya Productions for the second episode of Ultra Q where he was given more pronounced eyebrows, a tail, and more visible ears, to portray the massive monkey, Goro. * King Kong was the first monster to defeat Godzilla in battle. A popular urban legend claims that different endings were shot for the Japanese and American versions of King Kong vs. Godzilla, with Kong winning in the American version and Godzilla emerging triumphant in the original Japanese version. However, this rumor is certifiably false, as both versions end with only Kong emerging from the ocean, and Godzilla nowhere to be seen. Both Toho's 1963 international sales booklet and the company's official English-language site state the Kong was the victor, while producer Tomoyuki Tanaka declared the outcome a draw in his 1984 book Definitive Edition Godzilla Introduction. Regardless, there is no version of the film in which Godzilla defeats Kong. * King Kong's roars from the Toho films have been used for many other kaiju, particularly in the Ultra Series. Gudon, a kaiju from Return of Ultraman and King Caesar are among the best known of these examples. Some of the stock roars used by Kong in the 1976 film were later used for Toto in Gamera the Brave. * Some of the German releases of the Showa era films changed the names of various unrelated characters to King Kong. For instance, both Jet Jaguar from Godzilla vs. Megalon and Mechagodzilla are called King Kong in the dubs. However, unlike what many people believe, they aren't stated to actually be the real King Kong wearing robot suits or confusion with Mechani-Kong. The name "King Kong" carried great marquee value, and this is likely the reason why the German distributors changed the names around. * There were two known unlicensed Japanese King Kong films produced in the 1930's, Japanese King Kong and King Kong Appeared in Edo. They are notable for being two of the first ever tokusatsu/kaiju films ever made, predating Godzilla by two decades. Unfortunately, all prints of these films are believed lost and very few records of their existence remain. * Shunsuke Fujita, the producer of the PlayStation 3 and 4 Godzilla game, stated in an interview that the developers and he "definitely wanted" to include King Kong in the game, but were unable due to licensing issues. * With the exception of both Toho films, King Kong Lives, and the upcoming Godzilla vs. Kong, all of Kong's other live-action film appearances are set in either the 1930's or 1970's. * Kong is killed or seemingly killed at the end of the majority of his film appearances, with the two Toho films and Kong: Skull Island being the only exceptions. * While Kong is only mentioned in dialogue and shown through stock footage in Godzilla: King of the Monsters, he is included in a piece of concept art featured in ''The Art of Godzilla: King of the Monsters ''depicting the film's final scene as one of the Titans surrounding Godzilla. 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